Helen Ubiñas

STAFF COLUMNIST

Helen Ubiñas is an award-winning columnist at the Daily News. She is a champion of the little guy (or gal), especially those Philly residents who go unseen and unheard, and a not-so-easily-plucked thorn in the side of city politicians and organizations who forget they serve the public.

"The move was in response to a recent uptick in vandalism on the historic balustrades, which received nearly $1 million in restoration work just a few years ago," the Department of Parks and Recreation said in a statement. "Furthermore, the walls were not originally designed to be used for seating, so this measure will further protect the structural integrity of these iconic park features."

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney scoffed at anyone thinking that he, of all people, would support any heavy-handed move to keep people from smoking pot.

“That would be ridiculous and ineffective,” he said. “I’ve made very clear that I’m not going to allow that behavior to be criminalized. All smoking is illegal in the park, so we ask that people abide by that rule out of consideration for their fellow park goers.”

Look, I’m no fan of second-hand smoke, whatever happens to be in it.

And I can see how having a bunch of people smoking pot in a public park might make it less inviting and attractive to others – especially on the fancy side of town. Because let’s add a dash of reality to this conversation, shall we?

There is plenty of this – and worse - happening at other city parks and you’re not seeing this kind of breathless reaction to nip any of that in the bud.

But fancy or not, this is a public park, and no one group or activity should turn others away.

On that, Kenney and I agree:

“There’s always going to be controversy around how public spaces should be used – skateboarding in LOVE Park is a perfect example,” he said. “Some said it ruined the park for others, others said it’s what made Love Park Love Park. At the end of the day, I’m just asking folks to be respectful of one another. And that includes the Rittenhouse residents. They do need to understand that the park belongs to everyone, and if someone is using the space respectfully and lawfully, that person has just as much of a right to be there as a Rittenhouse resident does.”

So, let’s try to hash this out.

I suppose we can start with more police enforcement. In Terruso’s story, she said police officers acknowledged at a recent community meeting that enforcement of no-smoking rules in the park had lagged. They pledged to crack down on marijuana use.

OK, as long as they remember that penalties for possession and public use for small amounts of pot are a fine and community service. (Also that there are about a million more pressing police issues to deal with in the city every single day.)

We could also add more benches, to maybe lure the problematic pot users to another perch and protect those historic balustrades.

Or, better yet, everybody can just take a seat and just say "No!” to taking the “public” out of public parks.